www.littlenars.com | Dianne Peña

Some of my friends ask me of what is my schedule at school… one word to describe it is “MAGULO” then I would forward them my schedule this coming January and then they will just say “MAGULO NGA”… I even printed a calendar with spaces so I could write my activities in it and won’t get lost. It is now posted at my “to-do” board.

With that, I am having troubles with my uniforms. I usually post the schedule of my uniforms at our refrigerator so that our laundry helper will not get confused as to what I am going to wear every day. I write the schedule per week depending on where I am assigned during duties.

My mom always gets toxic with my uniforms. (Yeah, I don’t do my uniforms… LOL!)

To give you a glimpse of THE FEU-Institute of Nursing uniforms… Here are they:

1. Campus Uniform- To be worn during lecture classes and whenever you are in the campus with whatever transaction you are going to make… (Yup, I am wearing this until now… my lola would tease me and say “hindi ka pa din ba graduate sa ganyang uniform?”)

Actually, there are new set of campus uniform in FEU (white blouse and moss green skirt) and our batch is the last to wear this old “highschool-ish” uniform as they would say.

2. Clinical Uniform- To be worn during hospital duties and hospital orientations ONLY. It is our all white uniform.

3. RLE Uniform- To be worn during health center duties and skills laboratory ONLY. It is a white uniform paired with black shoes and skin tone stockings.

4. Community Uniform- To be worn during field nursing example (occupational, school, geriatric, psychiatric nursing) and community set-up. (I wear this during e-learnings and group meetings…LOL!)

5. P.E Uniform- Obviously, to be worn during P.E Class ONLY (I am not wearing this already, I have taken all my P.E courses already) — at times I wear this when I go to school for transactions and group meetings. There is a new set of P.E uniforms already.

6. Scrub Suit (with Cap, Mask and Smock Gown)- to be worn during Operating Room and Delivery Room exposure. The newest is when we are assigned to VINES.

The Newest addition and the Most controversial of them all…

The Travelling Suit (which is Green)- we are obliged to wear this all the time when we are on our clinical uniform and remove it upon our arrival at the hospital we are assigned to.

Why controversial? Because as we all know, the original of this suit in the U-Belt is CEU. Every time we had a cross encounter with CEU students, they would really look at us from head to toe. LOL!

Aside from our title “Walking Table Cloths” we are now branded as “The Walking Cabbages” Funny right? LOL!

It’s OK. I know I’ll be missing these uniforms and I’ll just wear it with proud and dignity.

Hey! I am a Tamaraw Nurse…:]]

P.S
No wonder I am having a hard time organizing my uniforms right?:]

For the long hiatus at blogging, here are my rationales… (LOL!)

It was November 3, 2008 when I started my last semester as a college student (awww…). You may have noticed that I haven’t blogged the things that I should have blogged about for the reason(s) that:

• November 3, 2008 was the start of my duty at Medical Center Parañaque. My shift was from 1 PM to 11 PM; imagine the long travel from Monumento (Caloocan City) to Parañaque… My clinical instructor really let us home at exactly 11 PM (whew!). I was assigned at the ICU and Hemodialysis room.

I also had our “last” general orientation in the morning. The subjects, rules and regulations were discussed to us. Our professors were also introduced to us. The dean leave us an inspiring message to strive hard with our Nursing Audit (In-House Review as others would call it) in which our battle cry is 3-5-90! (I better get reviewing…LOL!)

• November 6, 2008 was the start of my Nursing Leadership and Management lecture (NCM 104), in which our time is from 7 AM to 5PM with only one professor… (you guess how’s that…LOL!)

• November 8, I had my first Nursing Audit (NCM 105) review with Mr. Emerson Aliswag. Our concept was about Communicable Diseases. We only had two (2) meetings with him, it was short but I really learned A LOOOOOT! He’s one heck of a reviewer. No dull moments and his strategies were superbly effective. *applause*

• November 10, 2008 was the start of my second clinical rotation at Legarda Elementary School. I experienced being a school nurse (well, not really because of conflicting schedule). Instead, we were bombarded with paper works such as project proposals, daily action plan and accomplishment reports. Actually, its not hard to do those, what’s hard is that we have plenty of data gaps and we we’re bound to assume (the mortal sin of NURSING). Nevertheless, our clinical instructor Ms. Edina Jacob was cool and so it was compensated…LOL!

• November 24, 2008 was the start of my third clinical rotation at C&E Publishing in Baesa, Quezon City. It is on-going until next week so hopefully, I will experience to be an Occupational Health Nurse. We had a trip at their work place and the book process was discussed to us. We were given the chance to observe how the book is being done and our task is to be vigilant and keen as to the health hazards present in their work.

• In between those days, my group and I are busy doing our thesis about the Effectiveness of Stress Relief Balls in reducing the test anxiety among students in a selected school of nursing. Actually, we’re planning to do our pilot study next week so, Good Luck to us. Here’s our research pictures… LOL!

coffee bean @ trinoma after doing research...

monopoly @ my crib while doing research...

starbucks midtown after national library...

I am only at school for just three (3) weeks but it felt like I am on the half of my semester. I still can’t believe that I am on my senior year and this is my last semester. I am now anxious as to what will happen next. At times, I feel the pressure but then again, it must not hinder me, instead, do what ever it is to meet my goal and make my family proud.

P.S

My extra-curriculars are still not included in those reasons but one thing’s for sure; it didn’t allow me to blog for a long time. How I miss blogging! However, the great part is, I am busy but I can still attend to blogger events. LOL

To my batchmates… Luciat Vex Lustra! Let your light shine! 3-5-90!!!

What to do when you wait for Operating Room and Delivery Room Cases at the wee hours of the night—or morning should I say?

playing BLUFF

Roe, PLaying Jackstone LOL!

playing pick-up sticks

after playing Hi Jack...

I know, it’s illegal but what can we do right? We could sleep but some of us, including me can’t sleep properly…

Lyne, mastering her skills at sleeping... LOL!

as well as Llanah...=p

For the third time, our group was assigned at Rizal Provincial Hospital only this time, we are at the OR/DR. During this rotation, (sad but true) was my first time at really performing the “handle”— the one who will catch the head of the baby and deliver the placenta. Though, I haven’t got the chance to catch the head because I don’t know what to do and the baby’s head was already out, I was the one who delivered the placenta. It was easy though the gush of blood stained by OR shoes and scrub suit. Waaaah!!! Nevertheless, it was a great experience. At least, I experienced that before I graduate…=p

with our clinical instructor

Another thing was, our group experienced our first mortality. Though, it really wasn’t our fault and the hospital itself, the baby was delivered dead already. It’s a condition called Intrauterine Fetal Death wherein the baby died inside the mother’s womb. It’s really heart-breaking to see the baby violet-colored, cold, unresponsive. He was just covered with white cloth on his side, lying in his own arms. I want him revived but there’s no resuscitation done because he was already dead probably hours before his delivery. My other group mate even cried. It was really sad.

During my DR completion last summer, I was able to observe a baby being resuscitated for almost 15 minutes because I will do the cord care. My heart stop as well as my breathing because the baby has no reaction to stimuli. Good thing, with constant compression, hyperventilating and suctioning, the baby was revived. As soon as he was revived, my breathing resumed and my heart started to pump.

I don’t want to see a baby dying as much as possible. I want them to live. After killing the baby during our VINES exposure, I’ll definitely make it good!

P.S: Pleasssseee… don’t tell this to the authority… or else… we’ll bite you and kill you with our venom ’cause we’re a PAITON snake (one of my group mate’s surname)… LOL!

.....hisssssssss.....

Last Saturday, I have had the most shameful experience so far being a student nurse.

My patient is a 10 year-old male with a provisional diagnosis of T/C CNS Infection. He has body weakness, episodes of vomiting and he was very irritable. However, he still is conscious, coherent and oriented in three spheres (person, place and time).

During the shift, I took his Vital Signs, I noted that he had fever with a temperature of 38.2C so I performed Tepid Sponge Bath for my nursing intervention, then I rechecked his temperature after 30 minutes and it was 36.8C. I took his blood pressure though he is just a pediatric because of his episodes of high blood pressure. True enough, I noted 120/90 mmHg for his BP and it’s really high for his age.

For about 5 minutes later, a medical intern (or is she?…hmmm I don’t know) rechecked my patient’s Vital Signs, she copied the temperature I got but she, on her own got the cardiac and respiratory rate. Here comes the problem. When the doctor checked his BP, at first she didn’t got it because of the patient’s constant movement and noise and do she pumped again. I observed what she was doing, she pumped at 140 mmHg then release. She read the measurement and relay a 140/100 mmHg reading.

I was shocked. REALLY SHOCKED.

What the HELL happened there? I was really definite of my reading few minutes before. The mother was also shocked because I said to her that her child’s BP is just 120/90 mmHg. I didn’t take any move.

The doctor explained that the other doctor endorsed that the patient has consistently high blood pressure since admission, he even had a reading of 160/140 mmHg (as far as I can remember). At the back of my mind, I was battling with her statements I mean, that BP reading was before the client got medical management for his condition. If she could review the chart, which I thoroughly reviewed, his BP now was ranging from 110-130 systolic and 80-90 diastolic.

She even tested for Kernig’s and Brudzinski’s sign roughly. She didn’t asked the patient face to face if he experienced nuchal rigidity even if he can answer it directly, she just asked the patient’s mother to do it for her. What’s the point right? What kind of assessment was that?

Minutes after that “i-don’t-know-what-kind-of” doctor, the mother approached me. She said “Minuto lang ang nakalipas, sabi mo 120/90 lang, ngayon ang taas na…” I just said in a low tone of voice, “yoon po talaga ang nakuha ko… 120/90 po talaga yon…” then I left.

If ever I’d be assigned to the same patient again next week, I don’t know if I still have the face to render care to him. I was on shame at the same time I was pissed.

FEU Student Nurses are trained to get Vital Signs accurately without altering the results (well at least for my group). It is our forte considering it is what we do almost all at the time during clinical rotations especially if the hospital is benign (non-toxic) with matching NCP and Drug Study making. It has become our routine and our specialty. Sad but true. To be questioned in what I know I do best is a big slap on my ego.

I reported this incident to my clinical instructor and she just said “Hayaan mo yang mga yan, mga insecure lang yang mga yan. Ganyan talaga yang mga yan.”. I still can’t move on with what happened. I just said “Sige, kaysa naman yung doktor yung mapahiya, ako na lang kasi estudyante lang naman ako…” even though I know I am right.

Altering Vital Signs is crucial for the well-being of a patient. It can kill. If you would refer to my previous post.

I hope health care providers will possess the virtue of veracity because it is life that we are dealing with and not just a toy which you could by another if broken.

So yeah, after I have finished one module in our E-Learning, here I am today enjoying myself in our cozy home at the same time, being absent for my E-Learning schedule. Yes, my mom knows about it. I actually asked her permission regarding my absence. LOL!

For the past 2 weeks, I have been on straight duties and lectures. No free day, as in no time for rest.

Here is what happens when you are sleep deprived.

taken at Q.I

He is really sleeping...

2 in a row! LOL!

Student Nurses, if given the chance (even if there is no chance…LOL!) would steal even just a minute for sleep. Yeah, I am dead guilty. I have actually learned a skill for that— Sleeping in anywhere (be it on public transportations or in the hospital itself) and in any style you want as long as you don’t get caught. The best part in that skill is I can sleep with eyes OPEN. LOL!

I just realized, taking stolen pictures will help me not to have sleeping pictures. LOL! My skill in taking such unique photos is another story…=D Beware…LOL!

Oh wait, I still have loads of things pending to be done… arggghhh!

Free day is the new “Do-My-Schoolwork-Day” *sniffs.

*Now this would make me a good student. (Sarcasm again. tsk)